salon provides no proof obama european subcommittee

i love that media wonks will at times make ascertains like, obama hasn’t met enough time with his subcommittee on european affairs without providing proof that this stuff is true. or without giving background on what subcomittees do and how they fit into the overall picture of the primary committee, the foreign affairs committee. but i guess this is a leak coming out of the joe biden camp. the same guy who described obama as being the right kind of black guy back in january.

after searching the senate website, i found that yes, obama does head that particular committee. but no subcommittee listed including one that has to do with narcotics, lists meetings or any other policy information.

the salon journalist also asks that obama turn over his passport records to prove he has travelled in europe. which is ridiculous. the european union has the schenegan agreement, which means if you enter one country (minus the uk and ireland), you can travel freely within the other 27 countries without having to go through customes.

RIAA keeps suing fans

as the RIAA, the organization representing the u.s. music industry, continues on its useless crusade to stamp out downloaders, they’ve decided that now it is illegal to transfer files from a CD you actually bought in a shop to your own computer.

in this article in the washington post. the key bit is: The RIAA’s legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed.

rosie most annoying britney overexposed

rosie lard-o, has the dubious distinction of haven been the most annoying celebrity of 2007. britney, shake your ass, according to parade magazine, was the most overexposed star of 2007.

as the year draws to an end, could it be that this year started out with mel gibson’s mugshot, flashes of britney’s private parts, a mad possibly coke-filled car chase featuring lindsey l., and has ended with the head of the hilton clan declaring that he won’t be leaving paris and nikki billions when he kicks the big one.

iTunes Apple and Fox

fox movies will be available for rent on iTunes. it is thought that this announcement will be officially unveiled in january during macworld.

what sort of repercussions will this have on the film industry? is the film industry handing over their business model to apple as the music industry did in 2003 when universal music group and interscope geffen a&m records basically handed iTunes the celebrity rock band U2 on a plate?

being u.s. first lady

being first lady is not quite like being john malkovich. if we could imagine what hillary clinton did as first lady, which say, laura bush doesn’t presently do. well, laura bush writes opinion pieces which have appeared in the like so the wall street journal. i don’t recall hillary clinton having done anything similar while she was first lady.

today, the new york times attempts to piece some of this together and finds that hillary did not sit in on national security meetings, that she did not have a high level security clearance, and that she wasn’t even speaking to bill clinton, due to the monica lewinsky scandal, when he bombed afghanistan.

so what did she do? well, like laura bush and nancy reagan and barabara bush before her, she travelled with her husband bill clinton. when he wasn’t in the lincoln bedroom, they pretty much hung out together. and sometimes she was allowed to fly solo, albeit with loads of secret service guys. we can conclude, unlike the bush twins, that neither hillary nor chelsea persuaded their secret service guys to wear hawaii shirts when they accompanied them for a night on the town.

but one day, someone will get around to asking this question, what did hillary rodham clinton do before she met bill? what was her version of a night on a town? we know this answer for george w. bush and for people like ted kennedy. did she ever smoke pot? snort coke? cut class? get a D.U.I.?

hillary has a jay-z moment

clinton sat down with katie couric on november 26 and told her the nominee will be me. now, we’re reading that she and her campaign wonks are trying to lower expectations about the campaign.

atheists want to have their cake and eat it too

why is it that atheists and agnostics want to have their cake and eat it too? religious tolerance is important. but in this article, you have a situation whereby a family pulled their child from religion courses earlier in the year because the family doesn’t believe in god or doesn’t believe in religion or something like that. but now that christmas has come along, the parents wants their kid to celebrate christmas. the mother is quoted in the daily mail as saying: “i’ve helped out at the christmas party before and it’s got absolutely nothing to do with jesus.” tell that to mike huckabee.

twas the night before a politically correct christmas

here’s a great opionion piece about how times have changed in the u.s.

geffen bites the big one

so the geffen side of interscope, geffen, a&m records, laid off about 60 people. according to perez hilton, always a reliable source, it’s because the label lost about 18 mil on will.i.am, an eve single, and an artist by the name of nancy something-or-other. paul kremen, gm of geffen, and marketing wiz behind the u2 comeback in the early 00s, was let go as well.

it was also announced today that virgin sunset of the famous 9000 sunset boulevard, will be closing as well. the record store, which lost its oomph long before richard branson walked away, was a ‘great’ l.a. landmark of the 1990s. last year, the strip lost tower, this year, its losing virgin.

what does this mean for the music industry? well, that teens don’t want to hold stuff in their hands. but i’ve known this since i starting writing about digital distribution back in 1997.

iTunes days are numbered too. but it may take about 4 or 5 years for this phenomenon to fade as people grow more and more accustomed to listening to music and watching YouTube on their phones. which is most likely why apple introduced the iPhone. to sort of counter this. its inevitable. who wants to lug around 2 separate devices to get stuff done?

ben affleck replaces edward norton

a few weeks back, brad pitt dropped out ofstate of play, directed by kevin macdonald you know, the guy who led forrest whittaker to an oscar, to be replaced by the more skilled russell crowe. now apparently –supposedly, edward norton has had to pull out due to a delay in filmming. does this bode well for the film? ben affleck is an okay actor when cast in an appropriate role. he was solid in ‘good will hunting.’ but maybe only because he played himself. and he was pretty great in that j.lo video. you know, ‘jenny from the block.’personally, i prefer this version: 

hillary and obama debate qualifications

ran across this video from the saturday night lives, 70s edition. richard pryor has a job interview with chevy chase.

hillary brings bob kerrey in to pick at obama

hillary seems to be having problems. last month, we were watching her pre-mature coronation. now she’s trying to find a way to dig herself out of a hole that oprah recently made a whole lot deeper. so she’s got bill on charlie rose lying saying obama only has 1 year of political experience, when obama has 10. while hillary has 8 years as the first spouse. which i think makes nancy reagan and the bush twins as qualified as hillary.

now she’s got bob kerrey wandering around endorsing her. –the former senator from nebraska who i guess just can’t stand kansas any more as he now lives in new york, spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince a washington post reporter that obama’s middle name is not american. why does hillary need someone else to fight her battles? is she fighting like, dare i say, _a _girl? just don’t pull hair ms. clinton.

google finds yet another way to stalk you

google claims that knol is a better way to organize the internet. the structure of the project, while quite similar to wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, diverges in one way. it wants to find authors who are specialists on a particular subject and split ad revenue with them.

the beauty of wikipedia is that anyone can anonymously upload and or edit information. with knol, like google’s blogger, and google search, its all about tracking.

chuck and oprah making a difference?

i’m not sure how i feel about celebrities endorsing politicians. back in 2004, i believe it was joe pantaloni who showed up on the doorstep of some ohioian in thousand dollar tennis shoes, begging the family to support john kerry. this year, there’s the big ‘o’ as in oprah winfrey who is fully supporting barack obama. and then there’s the big ‘norris’ as in chuck norris of of walking tall fame, supporting mike huckabee. the chuck norris facts website is getting a lot of traffic at the moment. number 1 fact on the site, ‘guns don’t kill people, chuck norris does.’ apparently a norris favorite is ‘chuck norris gave mona lisa that smile.’   

robert downey jr gets a second chance with iron man

not sure how i feel about this trailer, but i’ve always had a soft spot for robert downey jr. he was pretty good in gothika.

dutch diplomat and wife give daughter back

a dutch diplomat and his wife adopted a south korean girl when she was 4 months old. now, 7 years later, they’ve decided . hope this doesn’t happen with brangelina.

on a different note. 49% of men in japan pee while sitting down due a perceived inability to aim straight while using the smallest room in the house.

collective snooze for golden globe nominees

a collective snooze meets the annoucement of golden globe nominations. atonement, which opened 5 days ago in the u.s. and is in limited release, leads the pack with 7 awards. the film, which stars keira knightley and james macavoy, opened on december 7 in 32 theatres and has so far grossed just under 1 mill in the u.s.

stockhausen r.i.p.

for those of us who have always had a keen appreciation for noise and electronic music from the likes of kraftwerk, ministry, or einstürzende neubaten, december 7 was a sad day when karl heinz stockhausen passed away.

to be honest, i kinda hadn’t thought about him in a while. i thought he was already dead.

huckabee king of the one-liners

good article on huckabee in today’s guardian. it is hard to get one’s head around saying president huckabee. but it is a typical anglo-saxon surname. and i think a lot of people are a bit leary of a clinton coronation. the primaries has become a bit like a marathon, there’s really no reason to break out early, cuz it’s the last 100 yards that really matters.

i heart huckabee

i heart huckabee was the first film in the canon of jude law films, that pointed to the fact that jude law, while kind of a pretty face (albeit, with a receding hairline), wasn’t actually a star. when was the last time he opened a movie? or perhaps the real question is, has he ever opened a film? ‘the talented mr. ripley’ was pretty good, due to the ensemble cast. but on second viewing it sort of doesn’t hold up. ‘alfie’ was a wash as was ’sky captain and the world of tomorrow.’

will the failure of the film ‘i heart huckabee’ have any bearing on the mike huckabee campaign for the u.s. republican nomination? he’s been all but ignored by the national media. and by every single actor in hollywood except, chuck norris:

could you image a president huckabee?

travels with angelina jolie

did you know that angelina jolie wrote a travelogue on africa in 2003 called notes from my travels? on the cover, she is surrounded by 7 african refugees and she’s wearing a cap, so she looks more like brad pitt than angelina. no matter. if you click on ’search inside this book’ you will discover that angelina mentions the word ‘I’ at least 20 times and ‘we’ once on the first page of the book.

the oprah demographic

according to this article on the new york times website, the oprah demograhic is: 75 percent women. More than 50% of her 8.6M viewers are over 50, while 44 percent make less than $40,000 a year. About 25 percent have no more than a high school diploma.

ft dc bureau chief and former employee for bill clinton thinks small states suck

well, not exactly. but if you read edward luce’s article in the weekend edition of the financial times, you will see that the the oxford educated political wonk who was speech writer for bill clinton’s treasury secretary writes that the american electoral system should be reformed. he thinks the historic compromise –which he never refers to by name as he’s not from the u.s. and probably has never heard the term, came about due to the u.s. trying to keep southern states in the union in the 18th century. when the question of southern success did not rear its head until the middle of the 19th century. obviously he’s been getting his facts from the highly reliable, wikipedia.

when in fact, the historic compromise came about because the small states were apprehensive about being dominated by the big states. edward luce also mentions that fringe states like florida and ohio, which in his opinion, are not representative of america, have a disproportinate amount of sway in the electorial system. when in reality, he should be pointing his finger at missouri.

whatever. in the end, people like luce view places like missouri and iowa as flyover country. and because he presently lives in dc –which is sooo not representative of the u.s. population and probably flies to new york and los angeles on a regular basis, he thinks he knows what’s what.

angelina can write, well sort of

angelina jolie has an essay in the economist’s end of the year special report–or rather, the beginning of the year special report, ‘the world in 2008.’ it’s on page 100 and boasts the headline ‘a year of accountability.’ that being the only multi-syllable word in the piece. the caption beneath her pouting picture reads: ‘angelina jolie, goodwill ambassador to the UNHCR, hopes for progress in bringing war criminals to justice.’ i would suggest adding ‘fading actress, alleged anorexic and matriarch of patchwork family.’

hillary hostage in new hampshire

is it real or is it another plant? sound a bit cynical? but gotta ask this question. now, the next 2 days if not the next 7 days of the news cycle will be devoted to hillary rodham clinton and whether or not she did the right thing during the situation and whether or not this proves she has what it takes to stand up to a 911 situation, like rudi giuliani.

well here’s a comparison. and i’m so not pro-rudi. 1.) she didn’t immediately rush to new hampshire, but hankered down in virginia 2.) she released a video statement after the fact which is filled with sound bytes and um and oh and other filler words. 3.) how concerned and/or upset does she look in the video? was she speaking from the heart? did she shake her fist and scrunch up her face? 3.) why is she wearing black? does this symbolize mourning? well, the hostages were released by this time, she should be celebrating 4.) why didn’t she release a statement during the crisis? 5.) what was she doing during the 6 hours? being styled? 6.) why hasn’t she taken questions from reporters? rudi did even when he was in the middle of ground zero 7.) when was the last time hillary took questions from a gaggle of reporters?

glad the volunteers are okay. hopefully stockholm syndrom hasn’t set in. it will be interesting to see what the background is of this leeland eisenberg man. but that’s up to other bloggers to dig into. now back to more stories about whorelando bloom. where did this name originate?